Rosberg intentionally crashed into me, says Hamilton

Following yesterday’s eventful Belgian grand prix at Spa-Francorchamps – where runaway championship leaders and Mercedes AMG Petronas teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg clashed early on to deny the dominant team a probable one-two finish – British driver Lewis has claimed, in effect, that Nico had admitted to causing the collision intentionally.

“We just had a meeting about it and he (Rosberg) basically said he did it on purpose,” said Hamilton in an Autosport report. “He said he could have avoided it. He said ‘I did it to prove a point’. I was gobsmacked when I was listening to the meeting. You need to ask him what point he was trying to make because he just came in there and said it was all my fault.

“And you don’t have to just rely on me. Go and ask Toto [Wolff] and Paddy [Lowe] who are not happy with him as well,” he added. The team’s executive director (business) Wolff, along with non-executive chairman Niki Lauda were both visibly livid of the situation, and gave no less than scathing remarks of Rosberg directly after the race.

It was “absolutely unacceptable” for their two drivers to crash into each other, mouthed off an enraged Wolff, while Lauda said he apologised to Hamilton. “Lewis was clearly in the lead and Nico was behind (when it happened; pictured below). Why in the second lap did this happen? It’s a bad result for Lewis and for the Mercedes team altogether,” remarked Lauda.

Following Hamilton’s remarkable claims of Rosberg, however, Wolff tried to calm the outroar by explaining further that, “Nico felt he needed to hold his line. He needed to make a point, and for Lewis, it was clearly not him who needed to be aware of Nico. He didn’t give in. He thought it was for Lewis to leave him space, and that Lewis didn’t leave him space.

“So they agreed to disagree in a very heated discussion amongst ourselves, but it wasn’t deliberately crashing. That is nonsense,” concluded Wolff.

There’s no love lost between the two title contenders, then. Whether deliberate or not, though, the damage has been done and it was Rosberg who came out on top. The German finished second, behind opportunist Daniel Ricciardo (who has taken three wins for Red Bull this year, in races where Mercedes has tripped up), adding another 18 points to his tally. Hamilton, who retired near the end, is now 29 points off the title lead.

This season sure is getting interesting. Also worth a note that the last time we had a season-long battle between dominant teammates for the championship, (Hamilton and Alonso in their infamous 2007 McLaren “partnership”) the contenders took points off each other and got pipped to the title at the end. With Abu Dhabi’s (silly) double points looming, could Ricciardo pull a Raikkonen this year?

Preferring to drive cars rather than desks, Hafriz Shah ditched his suit and tie to join the ranks of Malaysia’s motoring hacks. A car’s technical brilliance is completely lost on him, appreciating character-making quirks more. When not writing this ego trip of a bio, he’s usually off driving about aimlessly, preferably in a car with the right combination of three foot pedals and six gears.

Before we move on, Toto Wolff has given his comments to clarify Hamilton’s comments, so this story has been superceeded by Hamilton’s superior and should be read in that context. Though we all know this is just image management in the middle of a crisis. According to Wolff, it wasnt intentional but rather Rosberg wanting to prove a point that he was not to be pushed around by Lewis.

This is what happens when team mates are closest rivals to become world champions, and the team has failed to manage it properly. Anyways, nobody can, not even Ron Dennis when Senna & Prost (and Mr Ballestre) were involved in 1988 & 1989. The best way to handle this is team orders, but the fans don’t like that. So, better this than silly team orders. Thankfully, Ross Brawn is no longer with the team, else he would decided on a number 1 and number 2.

Honestly, I like it the way it is. Let them race and destroy each other. Then, Ricciardo can come from the back and leapfrog both. Sounds familiar? It happened in 2007, when Kimi did the same to the bickering Alonso & Hamilton.

Rosberg is an utterly rubbish driver. Not sure why Merc wants to extend his contract, because he is cheap or what ?! If I am Toto I am going to revoke his contract on few incidents.

He is just incapable of driving a good car. In last race we saw he could not pass JEV & also Lewis. In this race, again he failed to do a good or clean overtaking, which more of half of all the current F1 drivers could. So why keep him ???

And his cheat on Monaco, there is no way that an experienced driver can make such a simple mistake.

I honestly hate Hamilton… Specially bcos the british press all kiss axx to him…he always has a problem with a teammate that challenges him…
Yest things didnt go for him thn he radio his team he want to retire giving a shitty reason like saving his engine…hes a loser…he knew hea right at da end of da pecking order n couldnt fight..hes paid million to drive…
It was a racing incident with no malicious intent frm rosberg….
British press make alot beter than he is…

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